Gorgeous Divya menon D/O Drs.Ashwin kumar and Manjula Ashwin – her dance recital on 17/1/2021, an amazing rendition with every ingredient in the right proportion- an overview.
As Chief guest for the evening sri.Thomasji rightly enounced citing above sloka in which Divya displayed “Javaha – Agility, Rekhacha-movement done in such a way that the weight of the body is perfectly balanced,Drishtir -Glancing Eyes where the hand went her eyes followed, shramam- Hard work or Endurance, shraddha-Devotion & Concentration, Medha – Intelligence” in her rendition and her angika abhinaya and satvika abhinaya seemed very impressive. Bhava evolved very well into rasa.
Further as sri. Thomasji elaborated divya’s nritta, nrithya and naatya were exemplary.
When it comes to expression from within, including feelings and emotions at some points Divya displayed such a finery it seemed she is herself going through those emotions, such a sparkle in her Sattvika Abhinaya. It is considered the most difficult to master but she excelled at it.
I want to appreciate her abhinaya especially when naayika is sad and sitting besides a pond and a lotus blooms as well as a bramara or honey bee mumbles around in the piece ‘…natyamadu nataraja’.
I think her guru knows divya’s strengths as well as her weaknesses and she is on the road to mastery of her art.
Being a rasika I need no qualification to analyse art I think . But when we have seen performances of Legendary gurus like vasanthalakshmi and Narasimhacharis as well as others like Dhanajayas, Padma subramanyam and Chitra vishweshwaran who at their ripe age show so much adaptability, dedication in the propagation of their legacies I can say divya is in right direction to be a niche performer.
The common quality among all of the legends being they never leave any untied strings. It’s well set, well rehearsed as well as no slackness in between and with total dedication, art is perfected . Indeed when I saw the way Narasimhacharis duo choreographed or readied their students for performing the arangetram, how much detail they looked into, how they put 200% efforts to bring out 98% perfected performance and how they checked each nuance with great care.
Looking at it in another way, we Homeopaths who want to teach or deliver seminars and workshops are also like performing artists. If we can take a few leaves out of these qualities of legendary dancers and their amalgamations in contributing the best to the art, leveling it up a notch, we can learn and adapt them to our needs. I think we need to absorb these great qualities, to leave a legacy of our own.
After almost one year of turbulence and uncertainties watching her performance live ushered a breath of fresh air onto our monotonous lives.
Congratulations and best wishes to you girl, many more to come.
Reference Ten qualities of Bharathanatyam dancer https://wp.me/p3HotK-7v
drrekhasri 